Prostate cancer is a significant and increasing health problem in the UK and elsewhere, and there is considerable interest in the potential for screening.

Of the currently available screening tests, measurement of serum levels of prostate specific antigen appears the most promising.

However, despite evidence that screening can detect asymptomatic early stage disease, there is, as yet, no evidence that mortality from prostate cancer can be reduced.

There are concerns that screening may result in considerable over-diagnosis of non-progressive or slowly developing disease, and the effectiveness of radical treatment of localised disease, which itself will cause some morbidity, remains a subject of debate.

Population screening should not currently be recommended.

Randomised controlled trials are in progress to assess the effectiveness of screening, but these will take many years to produce results.